


Lone Purpose, Jagged Edge

by Darkest_Day



Series: From Stars [4]
Category: Destiny (Video Game)
Genre: Cayde's Reboot, Darkness, Desperation, Exo jargon, M/M, Reunion Sex, Survival, implied drowning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-25
Updated: 2017-11-25
Packaged: 2019-02-06 13:26:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12818508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkest_Day/pseuds/Darkest_Day
Summary: This is what happened. This is how the reboot process started, and if he could go back in time he would tell himself not to pilot his ship so close to the waves.





	Lone Purpose, Jagged Edge

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to make way more sense if you read one of the previous works in this series, Star of Dawn or All in All.

[ _initiate system startup . . . startup failed_ ]

 

[ _initiate system startup . . . startup failed_ ]

 

[ _initiate system startup — startup complete_ ]

 

[ _activating core services . . . core services failed_ ]

 

[ _attn: components blocked — initiate hardware cleanse . . . cleanse failed — fluid contaminated_ ]

 

[ _abnormality detected: 30 ppt salinity — error . . ._ ]

 

[ _proceed with contaminate cleanse — Y/N . . ._ ]

 

[ _proceed with contaminate cleanse — Y/N . . ._ ]

 

[ _no input detected — override — proceed with contaminate cleanse . . ._ ]

 

[ _cleanse complete — activating core services . . ._ ]

 

[ _core services activated — 26% functionality_ ]

 

[ _attn: overheating — system shutdown . . ._ ]

 

[ _initiate system startup — startup complete_ ]

 

[ _activating core services . . ._ ]

 

[ _core services activated — 38% functionality_ ]

 

[ _initiating internal wakeup . . ._ ]

 

[ _internal wakeup failed — initiating internal wakeup . . ._ ]

 

The beep was low, methodical, steady. Gears were running slowly in the cavity of his chest, caught on debris and clicking back and forth until the grit was crushed down enough for it to move again. Cords flexed, they tightened and relaxed in a slow pulse to crack the dirt from the creases. The beep turned into a low buzz. Awareness programs flickered into life, pain sensors switched back on and it was sharp and intense and _—_

 

[ _error — system restart . . ._ ]

 

His mind lit up with a pulse of energy that rippled through him, jolting his body and disturbing the sand. He was on his side, audio input turned back on first this time and the howl of wind and churn of waves as all he heard. Pain sensors turned back on, the pain was acute and it was everywhere even though it only ran at 50%. Pain sensors were flashing red as his vision turned back on. Water was ice lapping at his hips, he was half buried in the sand. His vision was overcome by tiny granules of shell and rock and he counted a trillion in a couple hundred thousand shades of colour before the system overloaded and stopped the impulse. He moved his shoulder, moved his hand, joints ground louder than thunder as grits of sand scraped him raw. He pulled his upper body halfway out of the sand before his systems overloaded completely.

 

[ _initiate system startup — startup complete_ ]

 

[ _activating core services . . ._ ]

 

[ _core services activated — 43% functionality_ ]

 

The quiet blinking was back. Red like a warning and slowly pulsing. He didn't try to get up this time. There was no water at his hips but there was water swirling in the machine between finger joints. One arm was sucked helplessly into the muck and unable to move, his other hand was lost in it. Sand was somewhere around the centre of his chest, one leg deep into it and broken but mercifully without pain. It was heavy, he was sluggish, but he pulled one hand free of it all as pain sensors went crazy. Sand was clumped under plates of metal that curled out like a bullet smashing through steel. All of it had seeped into his absolute core, where the thin wires and receptors and data collection transmitters lay. Nothing was supposed to get that deep inside him, nothing was supposed to ever touch it, the casing was assumed to be impenetrable. Pain systems were dulled down to 20%. There was no strength left in him as he grabbed a handful of wet sand and tried to pull himself to his belly. There was no power in his fist, he sagged back down into the shore and let his vision flicker off. The wind howled and the ice water lapped over his still exposed calf.

The ocean water both rinsed the grit free and _hurt_ more than he could comprehend. But he moved, used the rising tide as momentum to free himself from the ground. The other arm free, he battled with the water splashing over his head and kept pulling. Away from the water with slow movements, a quiet struggle. His hand closed around a clump of wet grass and he pulled on it, using the last of what kept him moving to pull himself free from the beach.

 

[ _initiating soft reset . . ._ ]

 

[ _activating core services . . ._ ]

 

[ _core services activated — 51% functionality_ ]

 

[ _initiating internal wakeup . . ._ ]

 

This time, when Cayde-6 woke, everything had dried out and the sand fell free from inside his core with each little movement. There was no water in him anymore, just crystals of salt that chipped free whenever he shifted. It stung, but the pain was no longer intense. So he crawled through the grass and the dark clouds above. His voice was static pops, his vision flicked sideways. But the rain was coming, fresh clean water that felt like pinpricks dotted his body. He rolled to his back, let the rain wash over him. Each drop that fell was a surge of pain but he remained, letting it clean him out a little bit more. He opened his mouth and let the water run through him, down to the back of his throat and to the voice box, flushing some of the mess clean.

He had no memory of how he got here. The last thing he remembered was the open ocean with the shore at his back and the wake of the ship flying over the surface. His ship was gone. His Ghost was gone. His cloak and clothes were tattered and barely hanging off of him. When the rain began to cease he started to pull himself along, crawling like a wounded dog.

 

[ _sky is torn open and there's nothing and nobody left in this ruined world but me and the boi — error — initiate system restart . . ._ ]

 

[ _realigning . . ._ ]

 

[ _pressure on all sides and the sudden heat of flame is ripped out of me as it — error — initiate system restart . . ._ ]

 

[ _realigning . . ._ ]

 

It's been days since he started this journey, through the rain and the heat and the continuous restarts. Quite simply, he didn't really have the strength to keep going. Rust was blooming on the jagged edges of him that caught on the soil he crawled through. It seemed to take a few more days before he got to some kind of ruined village. His first attempt at sitting up caused another restart. When he woke up again he pressed his back on the wall and just sat there, crumpled against it, and sunk down into deep blackness.

When he woke up he was dimly aware that this was the first time he had woken up from something that wasn't a restart. There were voices nearby, he couldn't tell if they were friend or foe but at this point, he would welcome anything gladly, Fallen would end this misery and humans might help. Weakly, voice cut with static, he called for help. A titan found him, it wasn't a hunter he knew so well it was just a titan holding out his hand. Cayde took it, trying to get to his knees but he couldn't hold himself together that long. It's not Zavala reaching down to him, it's an exo, he doesn't recognize him and he aches that he can't see a hunter and he knows that Andal isn't here.

The next time he woke up there was a man kneeling beside him, scraping away some of the rust that had built up in all his cracks. It hurt but he stayed still, allowed it because he can't do anything but allow it anyway, every movement was screeching pain. The man didn't wear any kind of clothing that would identify him as any class, human then, probably.

“Where's my Ghost?” He asked softly, voice popping and it really just hurt to talk. That was such a strange feeling, it had never hurt to speak before.

“No Ghosts around here.” The man says, he was wearing a strange-looking helmet on his head. Definitely specially modified, he wore no armour on the rest of him. It looked so strange. But the man kept working, he had a little bottle with a pointed end and was flushing some kind of oily substance into his joints to clean them. The ache started to dissipate for the first time in what was probably weeks. “I know enough about you to help, don't worry.” He said, his voice is soothing.

The titan isn't anywhere near them, the man just kept working. He slipped into silence and stared at the clouds. He needs to get to the City, to Andal, have someone fix him up and then go find his Ghost. He regrets not trying to find her but how could he? He can still barely move. But if he had been ruined likely beyond repair, there was no chance she was still alive. He mourned the loss of her as he was manhandled and had each joint flushed. He even had a pair of pliers, pulling the metal back in place as best he could. “How do you know what you're doing?” He asked, his vision was off and his pain sensors seemed to be learning that the intrusion under the exoskeleton was helping in the long run. 

“My buddy over there is an exo.” He said, brightly. “I couldn't even tell you how many times I've had to take him apart because he got himself all caked up with shit. He lost his Ghost a couple years back to the Hive, lost mine there too while I'm talking about it.”

“What are you?”

“I was a warlock, when I lost my Ghost I figured I'd rather just abandon my robes and pass as a normal traveller. Garalli over there is built like a truck, he wouldn't be able to pass as a non-Guardian.”

“I need to get to the City.”

“Look, the City frowns on people like us. Ghostless Guardians? They don't let non-Guardians leave the City, if they got a hold of us they wouldn't be letting us leave either. It's not really how I want to spend my days if you get my drift.”

Cayde only nodded, letting the ex-warlock do his work. He kept stopping to refill the bottle then he'd be back to it. He scraped away some of the rust on each joint, flushed it clean, then bent the pieces back down so it wouldn't catch as much. The process took hours, the titan came and went and eventually decided to stay as the sun fell. The exo was inspecting the empty containers and narrowing the plates of his face in a scowl. He's no egghead, he knows the plight of wanderers in the wild and he knows when he isn't welcome.

But everything still hurt so he won't tell him to stop, each minute things feel a little bit better. He didn't think he'd be able to bring himself to ask them to stop anyway, the relief is tangible. As the evening turned to dusk the warlock pulled the helmet off his head and set it to the side, admiring his work. Everything still felt a little off but he didn't feel nearly so bad. He felt like he could stand up and move around now. He wouldn't have been able to do that before all this. The man grabbed a knife and a couple battered bottles of something. The titan crosses his arms over his chest.

“You're going to give him the last of the supplies?” He gruffed, the pale blue of his mouth lighting up as he spoke.

“Yeah, I am.” The other said easily. “His systems can't start producing its own with him like this. Do you want him to get us killed? We both know you wouldn't just leave him here.”

The titan huffed, effectively proven wrong. He stalked off into the night, the man sighed. “You're a hunter. Figure I've got a 50/50 chance of you knifing me in the back after this is all done, but I don't think you'd do that. I suspect you've spent a couple months on the seafloor before getting washed up on land. Judging by the state of you, I'd guess you spent a month or two on the beach. Even if I was certain you'd kill me, one, you wouldn't be fast enough. And two? I wouldn't be able to forgive myself for leaving you all alone. Garalli'll just have to be careful for a little while, he'll have to try not to get shot.”

Cayde said nothing as he grabbed a fistful of the cloth over his stomach, he stuck the tip of the knife into it and cut the fabric apart over his belt. Then slid it up the centre of his chest, roughly cutting away that tarnished material. It was stiff and dry, crusted with soil and sand and salt. “This isn't going to feel right.” He said, “just so you know. It's really not going to be a pleasant experience, you'll probably restart a couple times. Garalli never thrashes when I do this but you might, if you do I'll tie you down. Out here we don't have the resources to plug you in to make it stop.”

He nodded, shakily, about to be opened up in the middle of nowhere by someone he didn't know. If he were honest with himself he was a scared. The ex-warlock climbed on top of him, sitting on his thighs, and put the knife to the centre of his chest. The metal clicked open roughly, and when it opened his sensors turned into a flurry of panic he tried to swallow down with no luck, but when the other half of his stomach was pried open, it switched off. “That was easy.” He laughed, then got to work on folding back the second layer. It was a strange sensation, he hadn't been opened up like this before as far as he could remember, even though he had offered it to Amanda. His mind was rushing over calculations at a sluggish pace, failed protocols to remove the hands from his chest. He wedged his hands under the man's knees to keep them from moving, clenched his jaw, and let him work.

The containers that were pulled from his chest were corroded and leaking, the man swore and climbed off of him, taking thick fabric tape and wrapping it tightly around the rusted bottles after cleaning them as best he could. He worked quickly, emptying them and flushing them and refilling them with hand-made oils and lubricants. “I'm impressed you got this far.” He admitted softly. “These aren't going to last and the boards are too corroded to initiate the production of anymore. It should last long enough to get you to the City, even if we've got to carry you to the end. I'm out of supplies, you need proper help.”

Cayde mourned the loss of his Ghost because without her he was stuck in this sorry state. She was probably at the bottom of the ocean, gnawed apart by whatever lay down there. Once he got to the City, if he got there, he wasn't going to be able to leave again. That would be a pain worse than death, never being able to leave those walls. Maybe, if he had the strength, he could go back and get to Andal and tell him goodbye, one last time. He knew he wouldn't like it, but he couldn't spend his days trapped there. But he wasn't going to survive very long if he stayed away. He said nothing.

The warlock was back and trying to get everything back into his chest. His mind screamed at the intrusion, it was an explosion of beeps and warnings in his head or maybe it was just him screaming.

 

[ _my screaming mouth as it consu— error — initiate emergency shutdown . . ._ ]

 

[ _realigning . . ._ ]

 

“You're the one who brought him to camp, remember. You saw how damaged he was, though I think 'damaged' is an understatement. Did you think I wasn't going to help? Do everything I can?”

“You want to bring him to the City, if we even get close _—_ “

“They're not savages. I don't like their rules either but they are there for our protection. He isn't going to survive if we don't get him there, you really want all of this to have been for nothing?”

“Most of our supplies are gone.”

“I know. Just give him time, and give me time, you know I've salvaged together what I could with less before. Maybe you're going to have to stop rushing blindly into danger all the time. He's also a hunter, they don't like having debt.”

“He's awake.”

The ex-warlock sighed, he grabbed that helmet and put it back on, stepping over to Cayde and inspecting him. “You're looking a bit better, not that it's saying much. You went into another shutdown while I was working. You're running at about eighty-nine percent, that should be enough to get you where you're going.”

He made a noise, the sky above was black and he couldn't see any whispers of stars. “I don't know what happened to you, I've never seen anyone or anything survive after what you've been through. I suspect you were under the water longer than I thought. There were a few times I didn't think I would be able to save you.” He knelt down next to him, they'd tossed a blanket over him.

“My Ghost.” He mourned softly, his voice sounded perfectly normal. Whatever he'd done had worked, there was no unusual static.

“It's gone, I'm sorry.” A hand was placed comfortingly on his chest. “Ghosts can't handle water pressure like you could, the pressure is probably what cracked your core. A Ghost would have been crushed before it hit the bottom.”

The news hit him like a warsat drop. He had known, of course, she was gone. But hearing someone else confirm it had been the final blow. The warlock pulled the helmet off, “we're going to get you to the City.” He promised. “You're at eighty-eight percent so you're failing pretty quickly, get some rest and in an hour or two when the sun rises we are going to start moving. Be prepared.”

When the sun began to rise he got up and for the first time in months, he stood on his own two feet. He wobbled, but he was given a thin vest to wear. The titan stood near him, his hand on his elbow to keep him steady. “What's your name?” He asked as the titan eyed him. He knew his name, but he wanted that formality.

“Garalli-8.” He said, watching as the warlock kicked dirt onto the fire.

“And your friend?”

“Braig.” Cayde nodded, taking a few steps and leaning heavily on the man. “Do you have a name, hunter?”

“Cayde-6.” He said.

“Is that a fresh 6?”

“Nah.” He needed to get to the City, he needed to get to Andal. Once he was there he could figure out what happened next.

They gave him a sidearm and they started their journey. His first steps were long aches of pain as the rough edges of the scars in his joints scraped together. All that sand had carved craters into each one, walking wasn't so easy. One leg had been broken at the thigh and was roughly taped together, must have happened when he was out of it, he thought he remembered noticing it but with everything else he had forgotten. With all the parts of him exposed to the open air the oil in his joints would get sticky and catch, each step would be slow. Red tinted the corners of his vision, it didn't pulse but it was just there. His systems didn't know how to process the mess of signals.

Braig would put the helmet back on occasionally, tell him he'd lost another 1-2%. Seemed like that helmet was specially designed to detect exo functions.

They walked for a week straight before they met the Fallen. He barely had the strength to level his gun but he still pulled the trigger and took down a few of them. A Captain got a little too close and cut him down with his swinging blades and he sagged into the wet soil they'd been trespassing over. Garalli exploded in a flash of fire and left a burning sunspot where the Captain turned to ash. The heat of the flame was soothing, almost healing to the deep mess of broken machinery in his shoulder. He stayed on the ground until the heat of Light faded, Garalli hauled him to his feet and he staggered to the side, systems misfiring. He was lost in the impulse controls and the frantic commands going off in his head as the titan hauled him over his shoulder and carried him until everything began to cool.

“He's down to fourty-eight percent.” Braig was saying, sometime later. He couldn't see anything, couldn't feel anything, systems were failing and he could only hear. Every system was resetting one by one. “We need to find a faster way.”

“He might not make it.” The titan sighed, he was aware at that point that he was still being carried. “He keeps muttering things, keep hearing the name 'Andal'.”

“Andal Brask? That's the hunter Vanguard.” He sighed, “they must be friends. If he doesn't make it, we bring his body to the City outskirts. Send up a flare to have them come collect him. And yeah, before you ask, we can ask for supplies. If he's on a first name basis with the Vanguard, us returning what's left of him might be enough.”

He didn't find any issue with the way they spoke about him, using him as a tool to get more supplies for their journey. He supposed that it was as good as use for him as he could be. Once his functions had come back, he put his feet on the ground and started to walk again. He was slow, but he moved. His right hip hurt, the side of him that had been burrowed in the sand. The side of him that had been the most worn down by masses of ground dirt and sand. The other side had more wear from the waves washing over him for who knew how long. His right shoulder could barely move and his left, where the Captain got him, couldn't move at all. Each moment he was still alive was agony in its purest form. He didn't remember what it was like to not be in pain, he didn't know how he could keep finding the strength to keep going.

He sank down to his knees, it was beginning to consume him. A blackness that felt final was beginning to form at the corners of his vision. Braig grabbed him by the arm and helped him to his feet. They kept moving, kept pushing forwards. He yearned to request that they make the pain _end_.

At the first sign of the Traveler in the distance, Cayde collapsed.

 

[ _emergency restart . . . system shutting down . . ._ ]

 

[ _error 3750 . . . error 2714 . . . error 217 . . ._ ]

 

[ _initiate system startup . . ._ ]

 

[ _activating core services . . ._ ]

 

[ _core services activated — 21% functionality_ ]

 

Braig was pushing his chest plates together again, pulling the vest back down over him. He wiped sweat from his forehead and laughed shakily. “Thought we lost you.” He said, relieved. “Looks like a hole opened up in your chest. One of the more caustic ones started eating away at everything inside you. I did what I could. We need to hurry.”

The titan pulled his arm over his shoulder, the ex-warlock grabbed his other arm over his. “We're almost there.” The exo said, “we'll send up a flare as soon as we're close enough. We'll wait with you until someone comes.” Cayde let his head droop to his chest, he couldn't speak. He was in and out of consciousness.

 

[ _core services — 16% functionality_ ]

 

It would be more of a relief to just let go instead of holding on. The Tower walls were in view and his systems were grinding. Most of his vision was clouded by static that was slowly taking over. That blackness was seeping over him, running through him. He would be okay with his final death here and now, he would be at peace knowing he'd at least been brought here.

 

[ _core services — 12% functionality_ ]

 

“ _Cayde!_ ” Her voice was so familiar, he knew it but he was too deep into the darkness taking over to reach out to it.

“You're his Ghost?” The titan, or maybe it was Braig, was saying. Details were slipping away too quickly for him to reach them.

 

[ _core services — 8% functionality_ ]

 

“ _I can heal him!_ ”

“No, don't! Put him into an emergency stasis, I know the code but I can't do it myself. Quickly!”

 

[ _core services — 3% functionality_ ]

 

Everything faded into static, “Am.. and.. a..” he murmured. In the distance he heard the Commander's voice. Everything faded into a clean white fog and he didn't know anything else.

 

[ _initiate system startup . . ._ ]

 

[ _activating core services . . ._ ]

 

[ _core services — 100% functionality_ ]

 

[ _attn: core corrupted_ ]

 

[ _corruption level: 29%_ ]

 

[ _memory reboot process initiated_  ]

 

[ _memory reboot status: standby_ ]

 

[ _initiating internal wakeup . . ._ ]

 

Andal was the first thing he saw, and he didn't think he'd ever seen anyone or anything that good in his life. Hundreds of years under his belt and Andal was looking at him like he thought he'd never see him again. Andal kissed the stale salt from his mouth and he was saying things. Confessions of love and Light and softness and all things he wouldn't remember saying but he knew damn well they were true. He couldn't think past his Andal.

He had no shame when he noticed Amanda was there. He kept his hands on Andal's shoulders and pulled his legs off the bed. He could hardly move them, but the pain with each movement was gone. Dimly, he realized there was no pain in him, not even a shadow of it. He was just struggling to move. “Fucking stiff.” He groaned, putting his feet on the floor, Andal had a hand on his hip and the other was on his back.

“Amanda, I need your help.” He started. “You too, Andal. I didn't make it here alone, honestly, I don't think I could have. Point is, I had help. And now I gotta return the favour. Two Ghostless Guardians, they're waiting on the outskirts of the City. I told them I'd help, one of them took me apart and replaced, uh, whatever it is that keeps me going. I don't know, exactly, but I do know that they used most of what they had on me and without Ghosts to heal they've gotta do it the old-fashioned way.”

“I know what you need,” Amanda said as she stood, she looked hurt and relieved and all sorts of other things he couldn't place. “I'll have it for you as soon as I can. Meet me in the hangar, alright?” She was making for the door.

“ _I'm going with you._ ” His Ghost said cheerfully, “ _I'm not watching this._ ”

“ _I'm not either, I'll come with you._ ” Andal's Ghost added.

“Wait, come here.” He said, she was making for the door but he needed one last thing. He put his hands on Andal's shoulders and stood up, his knees trembling. He took a couple steps over to her and wrapped his arms tightly around her. She hugged him back and he just held onto her as she rest her head on his chest. “Thank you.”

“I'm glad you're okay.” She choked out, he put his hand on her head and let her go, she blinked up at him and left, both Ghosts following after her. As soon as that door closed he was pouncing on Andal again, grabbing him and kissing him and opening his mouth for Andal's tongue. He'd been about to give up on everything, he'd been about to let everything go and let his name turn into a memory. Andal had been on the forefront of his mind and he was probably the only reason he had kept fighting. His clothes were in rags, Andal didn't care enough to be kind to them as he pulled them off. He tore at the worn down seams and left the rags on the floor, he ran his hands over the tarnished metal. He didn't even seem to care that all the rust was flaking off of him, that calcium cacked up most of him.

He put his hand in dark hair and tugged him closer, unfastening his belts and and his gear with fingers that were finally beginning to loosen up. He got him naked and pulled the top layer of sheets from the bed, they were dusty with rust and grime, he wasn't even sure how Andal hadn't insisted he get cleaned up first. Healing could heal him, but it couldn't take off the dirt. He sank into bed with him, their kissing slowing to something long and slow. Humans liked to kiss, he hadn't liked it at first but Andal's insistence on it had made it grow on him. And it did feel quite good when he curled his tongue up past the top part of his mouth.

Andal didn't waste any time, he put his hand between his legs and stroked up the length of him a few times before he was running his fingers over his hip to behind him. Cayde wrapped a leg around the hunter's waist, their hips rolling lazily together. He pressed two fingers into him, he let out a short breath of shaky laughter. “Fuck,” he hissed, “I'm so glad that still works.” His body was humming, Andal pushed him onto his back and settled between his legs, he curled his fingers in him and he arched into it. Sex with exo's was surprisingly messy. Cayde could only hold on for the ride as he entered him.

Andal rolled his hips into him, he admired his taut stomach and the lean lines of muscle along his hips. He wrapped his arm around his neck, already he was close to his climax. He whimpered, “this won't take me long.” He warned, Andal grinned devilishly at him.

“So do I tease you?”

Cayde just groaned, rocking his hips to meet his thrusts. Very quickly, his cords were tightening and he was humming his name and trembling, his body was coiled tight and the mechanisms where Andal was fucking him went off hard enough for his vision to go white. When he came back to, Andal was still hard and still twitching his hips, he could see the way his arms trembled from the restraint. “Cayde,” he purred, kissing him, he put his hand on his dick and stroked it slowly.

Andal always made the greatest noises when he was close, always sounded so husky and low and desperate. Andal's orgasm, when it hit him, triggered him to pulse weakly, already strung out from the last one. The man above him trembled and shook and moaned his name and Cayde drank up every little sound. He slid out of him, the little gap in his body sliding loosely shut. He settled down into his embrace, and the two of them laid together for a long time. But when the mess of fluids cooled and began to get sticky, Andal shooed him off into the shower.

He was a bit hesitant about stepping into the water, but there were no cracks down to his core anymore. After he'd scrubbed most of his body clean, he stepped out. Andal waited with a set of fresh gear for him, the same style that he wore. He put it on and the clothes felt strange but fit him well enough. He was a bit broader than Andal was, but he didn't really have anything else. The cloak he gave him was pretty generic, long and grey with the Vanguard crest on it. It would do until he found something better.

It didn't take long to track down Braig and Garalli, Andal went with him and they met on the City Outskirts. Braig put his hands on Cayde's arms admiringly, “you shine up real well.” He said approvingly. “I'm glad you pulled through, I didn't think you were going to make it.”

Braig turned to Andal, the hunter grabbed his hand with both of his and shook it. “You've done me a great service, he was gone for so long, none of us thought we would see him again.”

“If he hadn't made it,” Garalli said, his voice gentle, standing with his arms folded. “We'd still have brought him here, but I guess his Ghost was still around after all.”

Andal smiled at the exo. “Even if his Ghost hadn't been here, that would have been welcome. Thank you, honestly.”

“We had our very best gather you a few things,” Cayde said, pulling the heavy bag from his back and handing it to the titan. “Our Shipwright got it all together, should be professional-grade exo components and whatever else she thought you might need.”

“The Vanguard saw to it personally that you be given whatever you needed.” Andal was saying, he always 

The pair of them looked thrilled, only taking a brief look at the bag before slinging it over their shoulders. Cayde looked between the two of them for a long moment. “If it wasn't for you guys, I wouldn't be here. I owe you my life. You ever need anything, I'm your man.” Though he used the term 'man' loosely.

He and Andal returned to the Tower together, walking slowly and talking. Cayde didn't want to talk about what he'd been through, he barely remembered most of it. But he was back, and he was going to make use of what he had left. He wasn't an idiot – there was something that didn't feel right. He knew what was coming.

 

[ _attn: corruption level: 30%_ ]

 

[ _memory reboot status: initiating phase 1 . . ._ ]

 

**Author's Note:**

> I've been sitting on this one for ages. There's at least one more in this series on the way. 
> 
> Thanks for taking the time to read this. Lots of other great writers are tackling the exo reboot process and I'll have you know I'm reading them all and I'm super invested and you guys are fantastic. 
> 
> I wanted to catch this from a completely different angle. So let me know what you think, I love hearing your thoughts.


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